Cosmetic Odyssey 2021

Interview with Małgorzata Pindur, Clarena Implementation Department Manager, on innovative solutions which may revolutionize cosmetic market.

You have been observing the cosmetic market for several years now. Would you be eager to give in to the temptation of presenting a beauty futurology of yours? In decade or two what will become an inseparable part of our dressing tables?
- Today or in 10 years time these should always be cosmetics adjusted to the individual type and needs of our skin, preferably according to a specialist’s suggestions.

How come? You are not going to mention any miraculous universal particles that would revolutionize our creams?
- There are simply no such things, at least not at the time being. Indeed, biotechnology is developing rapidly, but the ingredients used within the cosmetics are not that numerous. We know that among others there are some incredibly active substances, such as tissue regeneration protein stimulators, however, their use remains illegal.

So the beauty care is limited by law?
- No, on the contrary. Law cares about our health. According to the current acts, cosmetics must have a define activity. They cannot, for instance, penetrate into deeper skin layers, or change tissue structures. These substances require numerous years of clinical studies, so that their real influence on our health could be assessed. It’s better to play it safe. Furthermore, the necessity to adjust Polish law to European legislation will help our clients open their eyes. Even today manufacturers should not claim on their labels that a particular product acts in a way reserved for medications. For example, you cannot say about a tonic that it is antibacterial, or about a body balm that it cures swelling, or about a cream that it prevents mycosis.
What is more, starting from 2013, when the Regulation of the European Parliament will be in force in Poland, it will become more thoroughly executed and what follows, the manufacturers will be obliged to present studies of theirs, which would confirm the claimed activity of a certain product.

Fair enough, if it is not the „ultra-substance” created in laboratories, then maybe we shall turn to nature. Choosing ecocosmetics seems to be a very powerful tendency.
- I have a feeling that we seem to overvalue the significance of this particular group of cosmetics, which unfortunately do not constitute panacea for everything. Even if we decide to use a cosmetic product with an eco-certificate manufactured on the basis of extracts from plants cultivated without pesticides, it may appear that we are still allergic to the above-mentioned plant. It is a part of common knowledge that vegetal extracts constitute a numerous group of potential allergens.

And a cosmetologist will assess if we’re at such risk?
- Yes, a beauty specialist will look at our skin, conduct a physical examination and as a result may suspect an allergy and recommend avoiding similar cosmetics. He or she may also suggest it’s necessary to conduct allergy tests.

Maybe we shouldn’t exaggerate. These are, after all, only plants – natural and healthy. We risk just a small rush that will be gone after a few days...
- Interesting attitude... It is worth mentioning though that a significant number of medicines, including those prescription only, are mainly vegetal extracts appropriately prepared and combined. Would you risk taking these without consulting your physician? With no fear that you could ruin your stomach or liver? Skin is our biggest organ and we should take care of it adequately.
Even the name of a combination that may sound foreign to us – as Drenalip, our product – is nothing else but an appropriately extracted substance, as in the case of Drenalip made of astragalus, ruscus, lemon and goldenrod. It is good to know the ingredients of such combinations. A specialist will know, and if not, he or she will check it in INCI and recognize the substance thanks to its chemical name.
As I cannot count on any miraculous substance then, maybe at least scientific development will help us one day choose creams suitable for our skin and effective enough to keep the scalpel out of our near future?
It’s not the case! Cosmetics will be better and better, as our knowledge on what we may add to the them will be wider. It’s pure science! Vitamin U, which in raw cabbage leaves had been for centuries curing painful breasts of nursing mothers, was in the ’60 used to produce medicines for stomach ulcers and now effectively helps people with atopic dermatitis, a skin disease. These are the milestones of contemporary cosmetology. But, to answer your question: the choice of a particular cream is one of dozens of factors having influence on how we look. Genes, sunbathing, diseases, the quality of food we eat, the regular use of cosmetic procedures... It will never change. If we solve the puzzle well, the lifting procedure may be effectively postponed for a long time.
Beauticians have much more procedures to propose than they used to have a few years ago. Microdermabrasion, which has recently become a standard, used to be reserved for physicians only; similarly radio waves or electrostimulation. Some time ago only dermatologists could perform procedures involving higher concentration acid, now cosmetologists are fully capable of doing it as well.

Does a beautician become more of a dermatologist?
- These two professions are not competing against each other. Beauticians still don’t have a right to break the skin continuity. All the invasive procedures are still outside their competence. It remains strictly physicians domain. However, beauticians and dermatologists should cooperate with one another in order to achieve better effect as far as the well-being and looks of a client are concerned.

If a certified cosmetologist has such a broad knowledge, maybe it is the phenomenon of the cosmetologist creating individual creams for one client only is our future? It has also become very fashionable.
-Honestly, I don’t think it’s a good idea, particularly as it is illegal. It may be fashionable, we may feel special and unique but it reminds me of unregistered restaurants and hairdressers’ from a few years ago, which were also very trendy at the time. 100 clients will be lucky to receive a product which will neither help, nor harm. They will be satisfied. But what about those who will receive a combination which instead of helping will harm them only? All in all, even though I know a lot about cosmetics ingredients, I wouldn’t agree to prepare a cream – even for a friend of mine – which hadn’t been produced in a laboratory.

Małgorzata Pindur – cosmetologist. For 15 years she has been working within the professional cosmetics industry and for the last 5 she has been the head of Clarena Implementation Department. She is the author of numerous articles published in the trade press, among others: Kosmetyka i kosmetologia (Cosmetics and Cosmetology), LNE & SPA, Beauty Forum. The department, she is managing, achieved a few impressive accomplishments, such as European premier of U vitamin cosmetic product; it was also the first unit to introduce pyruvic acid to the Polish professional cosmetics market.